Poster Session

Implementing multimedia resources - the creation of digital stories in the Anthropology/Sociology department
   at Seton Hall

  Mary Zedeck, Instructional Designer
  Shayle Abelkop, Instructional Designer, TLTC, Seton Hall University
  Dr. Cherubim Quizon, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology/Sociology, Seton Hall University

Students often have the misconception that cultural artifacts are the exclusive purview of a "tribe" or ethnic group. In reality, these items tend to travel long distances and take on different meanings in each place they are adopted. Seton Hall University is implementing multimedia resources for the creation of digital story projects in the Anthropology/Sociology department. The projects to be showcased in this presentation required conducting research, planning, designing and building digital stories that track Southeast Asian textiles through time.

This presentation will demonstrate the pedagogical concept of collective knowledge gathering and research. We will show how a Southeast Asia Culture course at Seton Hall University allowed for the development of student technology skills while fostering the melding and combining of many different types of resources to create new artifacts. Digital stories, created by students, will be viewed by the audience, demonstrating the connection between various pieces of information as well as the application of critical thinking skills to identify, define, compare and relate seemingly discrete/bounded cultural identities to better understand the dynamic relationship between cultural change and cultural continuity. Student perceptions and feedback will be shared with the audience and the presenters will also reveal how this project has created a resource that can be used by students, faculty and researchers in the larger academic community for various disciplines with the ability to be enhanced by future classes to encourage the collaborative construction of knowledge using shared spaces.